"So, tell me about these people."

It wasn't really that Seiichi didn't trust Belial. He did. He just also had a lively respect for his demon's sense of humor.

The day was clear and hot, good weather for their first match at Nationals. Renji supposed it was cosmic parity for something else to go wrong. He sighed when he saw Hatter's eyes brighten, as the team made their way toward their assigned court. What had caught her attention this time? He looked in the direction she was starting to edge in and suppressed the urge to put a hand to his forehead. Of all the people for Hatter to decide to tease, of course it would have to be Fuji Yuuta, and, by extension, Fuji Shuusuke.

Genichirou had known it was dangerous to invite Hatter to spar with edged weapons. He had, however, been confident that Hatter wouldn't kill him, or even significantly damage him. He didn't normally like the idea of handicaps, but in the case of a demon he'd take it.

He was coming to the irritated realization that, even restraining himself, Hatter was fast enough to touch him.

"Niou," Sanada said, carefully, "are you really suggesting an... orgy?"

"One is not kind," she said, very precisely, without looking around. "Nor benign. One has corrupted lives and souls and cities. Most recently, one provoked the Host to attack an ally and caused the destruction of Kurai's kingdom and people. One led Kurai herself into a marriage that would have sacrificed her life, by lying to her at nearly every turn. You should remember this."

"Hah!" Michael took his opportunity, as the teams filtered past each other on the way out of the stadium, to taunt Mad Hatter. "Told you we'd kick your asses."

Belial really couldn't help but find it entertaining that Genichirou complained about Hell's demons not being serious enough in their work.

"I mean, really," Genichirou was currently holding forth, "this is ridiculous, what am I doing here? I'm in the wrong story!"

Seiichi remembered when Belial had set the seal of their contract.

"You... you... you ate Tash!" Jadis declared, pointing a shaking finger at Akaya. Or, possibly, at the cloud of smoke in front of him that had, until very recently, been one of Jadis' inferior demons.